Modern complexity

WITH reference to your Comment column (Yorkshire Post, May 18) regarding the apprentice Margaret Green, I found the article extremely misleading. Apprenticeships as a route to becoming a pharmacist were common in the Victorian era (when only the simplest of drugs were available and very little knowledge of their actions was required).

By the 1940s, the situation was becoming more complicated and pharmacists were requiring more training and knowledge so apprenticeships were abandoned (60 years ago).

Pharmacists now have a prolonged and rigorous training; their main area of expertise being pharmacology (a vast subject).

This necessitates (after obtaining four specified A-levels), a five-year Bachelor of Pharmacy degree (full-time study). This is the basic qualification.

The apprenticeship route is, I believe, followed by some pupils who wish to become pharmacy technicians.

Distressing decision

From: David Butterfield, Rawdon, Leeds.

I WAS greatly dismayed to hear that Peter Sandeman has been removed from his position as manager at the City Varieties in Leeds.

While, obviously, I do not know the background to this decision, I do know from personal experience how hard he has worked over many years to raise funds for the renovation of the theatre.

It seems particularly distressing that, after all this hard work, he is denied the satisfaction and enjoyment of the fruits of his labour.

I can only hope that many others, who surely think as I do, will protest in the strongest terms.